Muldoons

IF YOU’RE SEEKING OUT VALUE FOR MONEY….(2)

After the recent posting about Creeping Bent and the great value for money Patreon model it has recently introduced, I want to now draw your attention to another fantastic venture that’s been underway round these parts for a few years.

The thing is, I reckon a fair number of you will already be aware of the great work being done by Last Night From Glasgow, as a few of the local bloggers, such as Charity Chic, have been on board from the outset and have written about it on a number of occasions.

Let me quote from the website:-

Last Night From Glasgow (LNFG) operates as a non-profit patronage. This means that we use all memberships and donations to fund manufacture, distribution and promotion so our artists do not have to.

A conventional independent model will see a label fronting all costs and then once those costs are recovered, splitting the profits 50/50. In LNFG we do not recover the costs, but we split the proceeds 75/25. The 25% we retain is then reinvested in other bands.

When costs are recoverable it makes it very easy for labels to inflate those costs, incur additional expenses and out source services for fees. Why worry about the expenses when they don’t affect your bottom line?

At LNFG any additional services we provide (external plugging and press, studio facilities or photography) are also paid for by the label.

Let’s break this down for you to give you an idea of the impact.

The standard costs to release, market, plug, promote and distribute with new photo sessions and provide new videos for an LP and CD release would, at the very bottom end, set you back around £4500.00. That means that before you make a penny of income, as an artist, you need to sell £4501 of records. Now if the label assumes that 50% of all income is theirs, that means you need to generate £9000 of sales to break even. That’s close to all of the units you’ve manufactured having to sell, just to break even. So the label have made £4500 and you’ve broken even. Hardly seems fair does it?*

With LNFG – on that cost basis – an artist makes a profit the moment they sell one record as 75% of proceeds are theirs.

How do we do this? By being accomplished business people who value the arts, by building a structure and support that means we can administer the finances in a way that benefits all artists and patrons. By securing the vast bulk of our funding at the start of the year, we can plan, budget and acquire the facilities we will need.”

LNFG has been on the go since 2016, founded by Ian Smith.  I was told about it in advance of the launch – one of the barbers in the city centre shop I go to has been part of the backroom team since the pre-planning stage, and given my love for music he thought it would be right up my street.  My hesitation and reluctance to sign up was down to the fact that this blog gets all sorts of requests, almost on a daily basis, for support and patronage and I have a blanket policy of gently declining on the basis that 90%+ of stuff on here is retro….

I’ve since watched on in admiration at how LNFG has become a mainstay of the local music scene in so many different ways, and of course last year, being like no other, they turned out to be something of a godsend for many singers and bands.

It made my mind up to arrive late at the party and take out a membership for 2021, and in doing so, pick up a few albums, of those still available, that had been released in previous years.  As with Creeping Bent, not everything that comes out on the label or its subsidiaries, is right up my street, but there’s more than enough great music to make it incredibly worthy of support.  I can’t see me ever giving up my membership in future years….

Please click here to be taken to the website where you can browse and navigate at your leisure.  There’s loads to enjoy.

One of the items I picked up from the back catalogue was an album released in July 2020.  Again, from the LNFG website:-

Released on July 3rd 2020, Made For Each Other, the long awaited debut album from Paisley’s Muldoons is a glorious jangly guitar lovers dream. The album originally pressed on both Black and Red Vinyl sold out within weeks.

Now re-released on a random selection of coloured vinyl for your delight.

The music will excite lovers of Lou Reed, Lloyd Cole, Lawrence and of course, the sound of Johnny Marr’s guitar. The Muldoons are inspired by bands like the Brilliant Corners, The Bodines, June Brides and all the great indie outfits who might have graced John Peels evening shows.

I really didn’t think the album would be capable of living up to such hype. But then again, I hadn’t banked on the fact that The Muldoons originally formed as students in the 90s, having grown up with, and been hugely influenced by, the indie-pop sounds of the late 80s. The five members of the band are Gerry Mullen (guitar, vocals), Bobby Corrigan (lead guitar), Andy McPake (drums, backing vocals), Greg Bolland (trumpet, melodica, backing vocals) and Davy Brook (bass).

It really is everything and more, with all ten of its tracks guaranteed to take you back in time, smiling, to an era when everyone was younger, fitter, thinner and had lots more hair. Here’s but one example:-

mp3: The Muldoons – Lovely Things

Now if that doesn’t make the TVV regulars sit up and take notice, I really am getting out of touch…

As my great friend Dirk would say, ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

JC

PS :

The long-running Scottish Songs on Saturday series recently featured The Poems.   I was bemoaning that their sole album, Young America, released in 2006 in the USA and 2008 in the UK, was a hard one to track down.  Unbeknown to me, LNFG was at an advanced stage of discussions to have the album re-released on vinyl, and announced its intentions just a few days after my posting (the timings were purely a coincidence).

I’ve placed my pre-order for the album, and it should be getting delivered in late October 2021.  And having recently been lucky enough to have been given a CD copy of the album by Drew, it’s one that I’m looking forward to having the chance to put on the turntable.

Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand

RIPPING BADGERS CDs (Parts 5a and 5b): THE FLAMING LIPS and FRANZ FERDINAND

#5a – Ego Tripping At The Gates of Hell – The Flaming Lips (Warner Bros, 2003)

#5b – Tonight – Franz Ferdinand (Domino Records, 2009)

#5a bought – Rowcroft Hospice Boutique, Wellswood, Torquay for £1.
#5b bought – Rowcroft Hospice Boutique, Wellswood, Torquay for £1

The ladies are looking at Badger and I as if we are weirdos. We are to be honest a little out of place. Essentially Badger and I have walked into a ladies dress boutique thinking that it was a charity shop. It clearly stated ‘Rowcroft Hospice Charity…’ on the front of the shop. We have ambled on in expecting to find a treasure trove of CDs and vinyl but find ourselves face to face with a Margaret Thatcher look alike who is a wearing twin set and pearls and is enjoying Radio 3 in the background. Let me explain…..

Some of you may remember that when Badger, KT and I were writing The Sound of Being Ok Blog (TSOBO) we drew up a manifesto, which we tried wherever we could to put it to the test-o. The manifesto contained at the end 62 rules, which, if followed, would make your life easier and much more enriched. We added to them all the time.

Some were daft:-

TSOBO Rule #28 for instance was ‘Never Leave the Biscuit Barrell empty’.

Some were eminently sensible

TSOBO Rule #12 was ‘Never shop in Tesco (unless you have to)’ and TSOBO Rule #17 ‘Keep Left (always)’.

TSOBO Rule #3 was of course, ‘Never walk past a Charity Shop if its Open’

…….which is why Badger and I are standing inside a small room about to ask this lady if they sell CDs. She is possibly the poshest lady I have ever spoken to, she pulls her glasses, which are on a string of, up over her nose and stares at us, when Tim asks her “Do you sell music in here, love?”.

The lady looks at Tim and there is a sort of disappointed look on her face, we have perhaps dashed a fantasy of hers of us being high class transsexuals. “There is an old box in the back room, next to the staff bathroom, we are sending them down to the town shop, as we really only sell high class fashions in this…emporium.” The words ‘town shop’ is almost spat out in disgust. Tim retorts “It is a very nice charity shop, love”.

I should explain a bit more…

The shop we are standing in is in Wellswood, an upmarket suburb of Torquay (unbelievably), an area where there are no Costa Coffees or Greggs, but Ecuadorian Coffee Emporiums, and Artisan Bakeries that also sell home made artwork for stupidly pricey sums. We didn’t see the word ‘Boutique’ artistically calligraphed onto the shop sign before we went in but on reflection we should have guessed.

We ambled across to the back room and find the box. A sad looking old lady moves a book of the top of the box, the book has Princess Diana on its cover, one assumes she has been spared the indignity of being sent to the town shop. There are about 100 CDs in the box, mostly rubbish but there nestled amongst the James Last CDs and the Greatest Hits of Ken Dodd, is where Badger picks up these two absolute gems. There is also an Ocean Colour Scene CD but we leave that well alone. I toy with the idea of buying the slightly battered copy of ‘Full House’ by Fairport Convention on vinyl that I spy peeking out from behind a scary looking tailors dummy, but I can feel the eyes of the Margaret Thatcher clone boring into my skull, so I leave well alone.

All of which lower middle class oikery brings us nicely to the CDs, the first one is “Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell’ by the Flaming Lips, an extended EP of sorts that straddled the lull between “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” and “At War with the Mystics”. It contained four new tracks two remixes of the title track and an appalling version of “Do You Realize?”, which spoils what was a beautiful song.

mp3: The Flaming Lips – Assassination of the Sun

“Assassination of the Sun” is pretty fantastic. There is something rather lovely about an earnest sounding Wayne Coyne chirruping away about millions of stars forming a sun machine that churns out pain, if you ask me. Two of the other new tracks are worth your attention, if only because they are slightly different from your average Flaming Lips track.

mp3: The Flaming Lips – I’m A Fly in a Sunbeam (Following The Funeral Procession Of A Stranger)
mp3: The Flaming Lips – Sunship Balloons

The first is an instrumental which has wonderfully mellow piano floating through it before it goes full on with the breakbeats and that. Its weirdly hypnotic. The second sees Coyne channelling his inner Nelly and going all R&B on ya ass, and requesting that we ‘Do it all night until the sunrise comes….’. The saucy monkey.

I won’t trouble your ears with the remixes. Instead, lets talk about Franz Ferdinand.

“Tonight” was the third album by Franz Ferdinand and was somehow overlooked by me when it first came out. It came out three years after the brilliant second album “You Could Have It So Much Better” and whilst I was expecting more of the same off kilter post punk art pop, what you get is something very different, well sort of…

‘Tonight’ is much more experimental than the two albums that preceded and those that succeeded it come to think of it. The archetypical ‘difficult’ third album if you like. It’s a bit hit-and-miss if you ask me. Let’s deal with a couple of the hits.

mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Lucid Dreams

‘Lucid Dreams’ is brilliant, an eight minute synth inspired that roughly halfway through it transforms (totally unexpectedly) into a full on disco stomp monster. Which immediately makes you think, how incredible an entire Franz Ferdinand electroclash inspired disco album would be. If you need further proof of how good that would be then listen to:-

mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Dream Again

Which is in a similar vein to ‘Lucid Dream’ in that it heavily relies on electronics, it sounds rather like ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ by Eels on a first listen, which is of course a good thing.

SWC

 

Steve Lillywhite, Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #280 : STEVE LILLYWHITE

I think this is a first…..an ICA in which the common link is the producer.

Steve Lillywhite celebrated his 66th birthday yesterday. He’s been working in the music industry since 1972, learning his craft initially as a tape operator, mixer and engineer.  By the late 70s, he had emerged as an upcoming name for his work with a number of new wave/post-punk acts, but arguably his breakthrough, in terms of being a producer-in-demand, came in 1980 when he worked with U2, XTC and The Psychedelic Furs, as well as what seemed like a futuristic and innovative production effort on the third solo album by Peter Gabriel.

He’s now been credited in some shape or form on more than 500 records, and is estimated to have a net worth of more than $40 million (US), much of it made via various roles in senior management at labels such as Universal and Columbia. It’s fair to say that he’s worked with a lot of rock’n’roll dinosaurs over the years and there’s probably been more records to endure rather than enjoy.  But there was a spell particularly in the late 70s and 80s, when his singular approach to production duties brought huge success to a lot of acts who are looked on favourably in TVV-land. Here’s a few examples:-

SIDE ONE

1.  A New England (12″ version) – Kirsty MacColl

Steve Lillywhite was married to Kirsty MacColl for ten years between 1984 and 1994, and they enjoyed a fabulous professional as well as personal relationship.  Her career had stalled somewhat after the initial successes in the early 80s, and she found herself dropped by Polydor Records, necessitating a return to the world of indies via Stiff Records.  Her take on the wonderful Billy Bragg song, on which there are all sorts of multi-tracking backing vocals, remains her biggest ever hit (#7, 1985). It’s worth mentioning that Stiff Records went bankrupt the following year, leaving Kirsty in limbo as her contract was in the hands of the official receiver, but she was able to obtain a lot of work as a backing or co-vocalist on records being produced by her husband, not least with The Pogues with the perennial Xmas favourite, Fairytale of New York.

2. The Sound of The Suburbs – The Members

The Members were one of those bands who emerged from the London pub circuit just as new wave became a thing, and having been given some early airplay by John Peel, they were, like a number of their contemporaries, snapped up by the fast-growing Virgin Records.  Steve Lillywhite had produced much of their early stuff for inclusion on punk compilation albums, getting the job as he came cheap, doing it for ‘mates rates’ as his older brother Adrian was the band’s drummer. When the time came to record the debut album, the band were keen to engage him, albeit it was easy enough for Virgin to agree given that he’d already made something of a name for himself in the post-punk world (see Side A, Track 4).  I think this is the first big hit single with which he was associated, reaching #12 in 1979.  It’s rough and ready and of its time, but huge fun.

3. Feelin’ – The La’s

It’s something of an understatement to say that the recording process for The La’s only studio album was a drawn-out affair.  The songs were written in 1986/87, but the album didn’t see light of day until 1990 as there were at least 12 different sessions with as many as eight different producers, with nobody able to deliver exactly what singer and lead songwriter, Lee Mavers, was striving for.  Steve Lillywhite worked on the final sessions, in December 1989, February 1990 and April 1990 at Eden Studios, London, producing some 15 tracks in total, before heading to one of his favourite locations, the Town House, again in London, for mixing work.  This was the band’s last ever single, charting at #43 in 1991.  And at under two minutes in length, it is a fine example of a producer keeping things tight and relatively straightforward.

4. Metal Postcard (Mittagiessen) – Siouxsie and The Banshees

Maybe a wee bit of a cheat including this as it’s technically a co-production by Steve Lillywhite/Siouxsie and The Banshees. Released in November 1978, The Scream is one of his earliest efforts and I think it’s fair to say his first masterpiece, one that acted as something of a calling card and which grabbed the attention of the former frontman of Genesis.

5. No Self Control – Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel was the name given to the first three of the solo albums,  Steve Lillywhite was the producer of the third of them, recorded in 1979 and released in 1980, and which proved to the album that stopped him being pigeon-holed as one simply for the post-punk/new wave acts.  It was an astounding sounding record back in the day, and more than 40 years later it still holds up really well.  This track was released as a single, and features Kate Bush on backing vocals, and I’ve often wondered if the results were partly the inspiration for the producer’s many works with Kirsty MacColl in later years.

SIDE TWO

1. Making Plans For Nigel – XTC

At the same time as he was working with Peter Gabriel, our producer was also in a studio with XTC, the fruits of which would result in Drums and Wires, which is most famous for its lead-off single, Making Plans For Nigel.  This album was recorded in what was then a relatively new studio – The Town House in Shepherd’s Bush, London, built by Richard Branson in 1978 as an affordable but modern location mainly for acts on Virgin Records, such as XTC, but which over the years until its closure in 2008 would be used by just about anyone who had a big hit in the UK.  It’s interesting to listen closely to Drums and Wires and Peter Gabriel 3, for there’s a number of production techniques which are common to both.

2. Angle Park – Big Country

Did Stuart Adamson really ask his producer to make his guitars sound like the bagpipes?  If so, the studio wizard certainly achieved it on the debut album, and accompanying b-sides, such as Angle Park, with which Big Country took the UK and further afield by storm in 1983.  Steve Lillywhite had really made it huge in the early 80s with U2, with the trio of Boy, October and War taking them into increasingly into the stratosphere.  Every band with ambitions of making it big wanted to use the template and while many put in the phone calls, not everyone got a positive response.  Big Country did, as indeed did another of Scotland’s biggest acts of the decade…..

3. Speed Your Love To Me (12″ version) – Simple Minds

Those who want to criticise Steve Lillywhite – and there are many – will point to the triple-headed beast of U2, Big Country and Simple Minds and say that much of what went wrong in the 80s can be traced back to his work with each of them.  It was Simple Minds who wanted to work with Lillywhite on their sixth studio album, which would be released as Sparkle In The Rain, and indeed the producer was keen to work with the Glaswegians, dropping other planned activities to head into a couple of studios, including The Town House, in late 1983.  The results were big, booming and, yes, anthemic, a long way removed from the sounds of what had come before.  It wasn’t totally a bad thing and I’d argue there are still some great moments on the album, such as this hit single on which Kirsty MacColl’s contribution is immense.  It was when the American producers got hold of Simple Minds afterwards that things went awry….

4. Sister Europe – The Psychedelic Furs

The bombastic stuff on this ICA has peaked and it’s time to head back to a new wave classics from the earlier period when Steve Lillywhite was working his magic, but the commercial success wasn’t forthcoming. A number of different producers worked on the self-titled debut album by The Psychedelic Furs, including Martin Hannett who is of course best known for his work with Joy Division and various Factory Records bands (and who, incidentally, also worked with U2 as they were emerging).  Sister Europe is one of the highlights of the album and is one attributed solely to Lillywhite.  An edited version was released as a single in February 1980 but failed to chart.

5. Days – Kirsty MacColl

I make no apologies for closing with a second track on this ICA from Kirsty MacColl.  Released as a single in June 1989, it really is hard to believe that it’s a cover of a song by The Kinks, dating back to 1968.  It has all her trademarks and it is perfectly produced.  To those who chide Steve Lillywhite for his Celtic-era work, I simply ask that you give this a listen, preferably on a good system or through headphones to hear what he really could do. I’ve even ripped the song at 320 kpbs from the 12″ single for the purpose…….(as indeed, I’ve also done for the opening track on this ICA)

JC

Rakes

LANDFILL INDIE? – A FRESH SERIES FOR MONDAYS (Issue 4)

Those of you with a decent enough memory should know where this one is heading……that is, if you recall the occasion, in December 2016, when I pulled together a short piece about The Rakes:-

“Back in 2004/2005, the UK charts were seemingly dominated by a plethora of emerging guitar-led bands, very few of whom lasted the course beyond the debut LP. One of my favourite records from the period has turned out to be Capture/Release, the debut LP by The Rakes. Now I’ve tried over the years to be an avid reader of blogs, but I haven’t read too many pieces that have mentioned far less praised this particular record. Which is a bit of an oversight in my humble opinion…..

The Rakes never really fitted in with any genre – some thought they were from the post-punk art scene like Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park or Bloc Party, while others thought they were just another London band like Razorlight or The Libertines who owed their success to a lazy, fawning media.

I first heard the band through seeing some of their videos on MTV2 and thinking that they were infectiously catchy songs. I’ll be honest and admit I never rushed out and bought anything right away, nor did I go along and catch them playing live. But in due course, maybe about a year after it came out, I picked up a second-hand copy of their debut LP and gave it a listen. Eleven brilliant pop songs in just over 30 minutes – and a record that really should have gotten a lot more critical acclaim at the time.

I bought follow-up LP Ten New Messages not long after it was released in March 2007, and it too became a bit of a favourite, although like a lot of records that I bought in 2007 wasn’t listened to all that often as I spent a fair chunk of the year working in Canada and far away from the record collection. And then blogging sort of took over and bands like The Rakes, The Libertines and The Futureheads, all of whom had released some cracking stuff over a two-year period, were sort of forgotten about as I delved further and further back in time and listened to loads of old vinyl for the first time in years.

The band released their third LP in 2009 – Klang – but it proved to be a flop and they called it a day soon after. But The Rakes, I would argue, were far better at what they did than many others who made more money and managed to eke out a longer career.”

Which is why, some four and a bit years on, I have no hesitation in refusing to have any of the Rakes CDs or 7″ singles put out with the rubbish.

Indeed, if I happened to be passing a landfill site and saw any of their material as part of it, I would quite probably climb the fence and do a bit of rescuing – especially if I’d been drinking.

Last time round, I featured the singles Strasbourg, Retreat, 22 Grand Job and Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep), all from the debut album. Here’s a couple more singles, this time lifted from the second album:-

mp3: The Rakes – The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect
mp3: The Rakes – We Danced Together

And ,also from the same release back in 2007, a track on which there are a number of guest vocalists, including the soon to-be-famous folksinger, Laura Marling:-

mp3: The Rakes – Suspicious Eyes

I think this all demonstrates they were a cut above the norm, but feel free to differ.

JC

R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Part 36)

It’s interesting to ponder whether the 1999 film Man On The Moon would have been given the green light by Hollywood if it hadn’t been for the fact that R.E.M. had enjoyed a huge hit single some seven years earlier, and in many ways re-igniting interest in the comedian, Andy Kaufman.

It did therefore make sense that the moguls turned to the band to work on the score to accompany the movie, with the fruits of their labour appearing as orchestral music on a soundtrack album in November 1999, alongside contributions from Kaufman himself and Jim Carrey as Kaufman.

It’s worth interjecting at this point that Man on The Moon is more than a decent watch, but whether you love it or loath it will largely depend on two things;

(i) does the surreal/childish/challenging humour utilised by Kaufman make you laugh or cringe? ; and

(ii) do you think Jim Carrey is a genius or a dickhead?

The latter is important as he really is at the centre of the film, in just about every single scene.

What I will say, is that you should make time to watch Jim & Andy – The Great Beyond, a 2017 documentary which basically is a behind the scenes look at the making of Man on The Moon. Without giving too much away, Carrey remains in character as Kaufman at all times, leading to all sorts of manic behaviour and chaos on the set and the surrounding environs. Michael Stipe makes an appearance in the documentary, clearly bemused by what he was finding during a visit to the set. It’s available on Netflix.

In addition to the score, the band wrote one entirely new song, which would feature (as these things tend to do) as the credits rolled.  It was included on the soundtrack, and in late January 2000 just after the Xmas market had died down, it was issued as a single.  Incredibly, this stand-alone effort provided R.E.M. with their biggest ever hit  in the UK, coming in at #3, eventually spending ten weeks in the Top 75:-

mp3: R.E.M. – The Great Beyond

This chart performance was in complete contrast to the singles lifted from Up, with The Robster over the past few weeks highlighting that even those which did chart tended to drop out pretty quickly.

The reason is quite simple in that The Great Beyond remained part of the radio playlists for weeks as this was the R.E.M. that the producers and DJs wanted, and given the fact it sold consistently for a couple of months, it was what the public wanted.

Let’s face it. The Great Beyond is Man On The Moon (the hit single) Part 2. It had the same sort of feel, sound, energy and sentiment about it. It really was R.E.M. for the masses, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mentioned previously that I’m not a huge lover of Man On The Moon and likewise, I’ve the same ‘meh’ feeling about The Great Beyond. It kind of sounds as if the three remaining members of the band, having listened to the criticism given to Up, decided to prove just how easy it would be to go back to the Automatic era and churn out something with one hand tied behind their collective backs and with their eyes closed. The interesting thing was whether this would be the sort of songs to appear on the next studio album or would they go back to the more challenging and experimental stuff? That’s all for the next three editions of this series……..

Incidentally, I thought that the #3 result for The Great Beyond was partly down to it being tied in with the release of the film, and that people might be buying it after a visit to the cinema. I was very wrong as Man On The Moon, while released in theatres in the USA at the end of 1999, didn’t premiere over here until May 2000, by which time the single was long out of the charts.

Nor was it the result of multi-formatting. One CD and one cassette release only, each with the same bonus tracks, aimed straight at those who hadn’t bought any R.E.M. since the early 90s but still went along to the gigs to hear the old stuff:-

mp3: R.E.M. – Everybody Hurts (live at Glastonbury, June 1999)
mp3: R.E.M. – The One I Love (live at Glastonbury, June 1999)

95,000 singing along…..it really was a far cry from the IRS days.

JC

Popup

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #250: POPUP

I wrote previously about PopUp, just the once, and it was back in May 2014.  As I mentioned, they had been really active from about 2006-2008 when the debut album appeared, of which this was one of many highlights:-

mp3: Popup – Chinese Burn

Not afraid whatsoever to sing in a local accent, they were also a great act in the live setting.  I mentioned last time out that the band’s twitter account had been inactive since December 2012 which would indicate they have broken up.

But 2020 was a strange year for many reasons, not least this, on Facebook last April-

Whimpers is Popup’s second album. The songs were written and recorded shortly after the release of A Time and a Place in 2008, and a number of them featured heavily in Popup’s live sets around that time.

For the most part, it was recorded and mixed by Gal (Paul Gallagher) at his studios at 4th Street and then at the Glenwood Studio. A couple of tracks were recorded in Popup’s old rehearsal studio, either by themselves or by their dear friend Mark Amery-Behr. They just preferred those versions to the ones from the studio.

It was mastered by Sam Smith at Green Door studio in Glasgow.

Around 2011, Popup stopped playing shows and the album had not been released. Time passed, children were born etc.

At a friend’s wedding in 2017, the four members of Popup found themselves chatting, and the idea of putting the second album out came up. This is them just getting round to that.

The members of Popup remain friends and still muck around making music, sometimes with each other. They may release more music in the future, though not necessarily as Popup.

It’s available for just £5 from bandcamp as well as via all sorts of other download streaming services.  Maybe someone will pick it up and give it a physical release…..

The only downside is that the lockdown situation prevented any thoughts of the band coming together for a live show or two to highlight the fact there was a new release all these years later.

mp3: Popup – Sinatra

JC

 

Primal Scream

WATCH IT DOUBLE IN PRICE ON-LINE IN NOVEMBER

Today’s posting should have been from SWC, but I’ve elbowed it into next week so that I can have a wee rant.

I love books almost as much as I do music.  I’ve well over 500 of the things lying around various corners of Villain Towers, constantly resisting the urges of Mrs V to get rid of some of them.  I’ve a fondness, you won’t be surprised to learn, for books about music, musicians and pop/rock history.  There’s nearly 200 of these in the collection, of which around half are biographies or memoirs.

Hearing the news that Bobby Gillespie is about to have his story published was quite exciting, and discovering that the book is being published on 28 October 2021 means it’s a no-brainer for being added to the next Santa list.  The fact it’s only taking things up to the release of Screamadelica is even better news as it will inevitably have a huge focus on my home city and the environs in which Bobby grew up.

The info came via one of the few social media things I keep up with and clicking on the link led to an immediate increase in my blood pressure.

Tenement Kid can be pre-ordered just now from a number of places, including Waterstones, the largest book chain in the UK, where the asking price is £20 for a signed copy.

The publisher, White Rabbit, has this info on line:-

As well as publishing in hardback, ebook and audio – all of which are available to pre-order now – TENEMENT KID will be available in two special collector’s editions:

It turns out that one is an ‘Independent Record Store Special Edition’, consisting of 500 copies which will be signed, numbered and stamped, in a bespoke Green slipcase, for which the price is £49.99

The second is a ‘Rough Trade Store Special Edition’, consisting of 1000 copies, again all to be signed, numbered and stamped, but this time in in a bespoke Red slipcase, for which the price is, again, £49.99.

Fair enough if you’re a big fan, but not enough to make me justify the additional £30 for something that I won’t have in my hands for another seven-and-a-bit months.

Here’s the thing….five Independent Record Stores have links available for the pre-order. Drift Records in Totnes (which is SWC country), Resident Music in Brighton, Norman Records in Leeds, Piccadilly Records in Manchester and Monorail Records in Glasgow. Two of the pre-orders, in Manchester and Glasgow, are already sold out.

Now, I may be wrong, and they have been snapped up by fans who have something to really look forward to, but I can’t help but be cynical and reckon folk are just taking a punt on the fact there are only 500 of things and have a plan to put their copy up on-line in early November in which they will seek to make a tidy profit. It’s the sort of behaviour that quickly put me off Record Store Day when the shops would be teeming, not with fans but with speculators, and has become increasingly common as singers/bands/labels put out limited edition copies of albums, usually at a premium, which quickly sell out before all too soon appearing on Discogs or the likes.

To illustrate…..

Monorail had a limited exclusive edition of As Days Get Dark, the new Arab Strap album, which came out just seven days ago. It included a bonus flexi disc, signed by Aidan and Malcolm and the flexi discs were limited to 600 in total. The asking price was £22.99 and unsurprisingly, given their popularity round these parts, it sold out in the blink of an eye…..to the extent that I missed out and had to settle for a copy without the flexi at £2 cheaper.

This special edition with the flexi is already on Discogs.

There are three on offer.

£80, £95 and £129 are the asking prices.

All described as mint, sealed/shrink wrapped and unplayed which means these fucking parasites paid £23 for something they had no intention of ever playing just so that they could look to make a killing.

Now, do you think I might be right about Bobby Gillespie’s book?

mp3: Primal Scream – If They Move, Kill ‘Em

JC

Zip

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF ZIP (Part One)

A GUEST POSTING by KHAYEM

Yes, it’s a tongue-in-cheek title: Zip only released one record. It also turned out to be the only time I got to see Pete Shelley live in concert and by accident, at that.

It’s May 1988, I’ve recently dropped out of college and got a full-time job and suddenly I have money for drinking and gigs. Unfortunately, whilst my friends have a passion for the former (especially if their newly minted mate is buying the rounds), few share my taste (or financial means) for the latter. So, I frequently found myself in a trade off, going to see bands that I had little or no interest in, in order to see a band I really wanted to see. This particular gig swap in 1988 was Siouxsie & The Banshees (me) and Erasure (my mate Paul).

Paul was a college friend and his enthusiasm for hip hop and rap (and James Brown) was infectious. It’s fair to say that Erasure was a bit of an unexpected suggestion from him, but I went along with it. I’d enjoyed Vince Clarke’s musical excursions with Depeche Mode and Yazoo and bought his one-off collaborations with Paul Quinn and Feargal Sharkey, as well as some of the early Erasure singles. By the time of The Innocents tour in 1988, I wasn’t a fan but I really wanted to see Siouxsie & The Banshees so needs must…

The gig was at the Colston Hall in Bristol and we had seats in row V, the ‘rear stalls’ about 17 back from the stage, far from an up front and personal experience.

There was no information on the support act, but the merchandise tables proclaimed ‘Zip’, whoever they might be. From our distant seats, even the sight of the three men in black taking to the stage didn’t elicit any recognition. However, the moment the voice started, a “What the…?!” moment triggered. My brother had Buzzcocks’ Singles Going Steady and it was a regular Friday/Saturday getting-ready-for-going-out soundtrack, so I could hear it was Pete Shelley, even if I couldn’t see him clearly. But… what was this?

I’ll be honest and say I don’t remember all that much about the gig (and browsing the internet, I don’t seem to be alone). Apart from the single A & B sides, I’ve no idea what other songs were on the setlist. I’ve got a vague recollection that they may have played Ever Fallen In Love… (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve?) but that may just be a retrospective false memory. What I do recall was that Zip’s music was frenetic if a bit tinny, Shelley’s vocals sounded higher pitched than expected and it was all a bit…well, disappointing, really.

I didn’t see Zip’s debut single Your Love/Give It To Me around at the time and I wouldn’t have been moved to buy it following the Bristol gig. Thanks to the internet, I managed to hear the songs many years later and they’re actually not all that bad. Give It To Me actually first appeared as a B-side to Pete Shelley’s 1984 single Never Again and the better of the two Zip versions is the extended mix on the 12” single. Likewise, in my opinion, the remixed version of Your Love is superior. I don’t recall either getting airplay on Radio 1 though I do remember the following year hearing the similarly sounding remix of Homosapien II on the Annie Nightingale show. I’m guessing this too was short-lived as it was also in 1989 that Buzzcocks reformed. Never one to let a good song go to waste, in 1996 both songs were re-recorded for Buzzcocks’ All Set album, sounding as if they were always meant to sound that way.

There’s very little information about Zip available on the internet, but there’s an interesting article from The List magazine, promoting Zip’s support slot on Erasure’s The Innocents tour

https://archive.list.co.uk/the-list/1988-04-15/34/

Here is Zip’s sole 12” single from 1988:

Zip – Your Love (Single Version)
Zip – Your Love (Ext)
Zip – Give It To Me (Ext)

plus the various other versions of the A & B sides:

Pete Shelley – Give It To Me (Single Version) (1984)
Zip – Give It To Me (Single Version) (1987)
Buzzcocks – Your Love (1996)
Buzzcocks – Give It To Me (1996)

And the Erasure gig? It was okay, but it was the early 1990s before I really started enjoying their singles again. The Siouxsie & The Banshees gig followed in September 1988 and I thought it was great, Paul less so.

But this is where it gets weird for me. I remember that Siouxsie spent the whole concert sitting on a stool because she had injured her leg. However, all of the online info I can find mentions a broken leg during the 1985 tour, which I couldn’t possibly have been to. If anyone else attended the Peep Show tour in 1988 and can ease my addled mind, please let me know!

KHAYEM

 

Care

IT’S ONLY TAKEN 37 YEARS TO GET HERE…

As mentioned previously on the blog back in December 2013, (to great indifference!!), Care was primarily a coming together of Ian Broudie and Paul Simpson, forming in early 1983.

The former is best known as the man behind The Lightning Seeds, but he’s been part of the music scene in his native Liverpool since the late 70s, initially as part of the new wave band Big In Japan (who also featured Holly Johnson who found fame with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Bill Drummond, likewise with The KLF). The latter had come to some minor prominence as the vocalist with The Wild Swans, two of whose other members – Jeremy Kelly and Ged Quinn – would go onto enjoy fleeting chart fame with The Lotus Eaters.

I remember hearing My Boyish Days, the debut single by Care one evening on either the David Jensen or Janice Long show on Radio 1 and being knocked out by what was then a pretty unusual and distinctive mix of acoustic guitars and synthesisers. I tracked the record down the following day.

It was on a major label – Arista Records. The production team was Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley who at the time were probably the biggest name producers in the UK. But despite considerable airplay in the evenings, it didn’t make the then crucial A-list at Radio 1 and the single faded into obscurity.

The b-sides productions were accredited to Kingbird, one of the names that Broudie used.  He took responsibility for the follow-up single, Flaming Sword, and it sneaked into the Top 50.

Single number three, Whatever Possessed You?, was another Kingbird effort, and despite at least one TV promo slot on the Oxford Road Show (I know this as I still have the clip on VHS tape), it didn’t come close to the charts, suffering from a severe lack of airplay.

Care then broke up in the summer of 1984 without bothering to release their debut album, the songs of which, along with the singles, some b-sides and demo tracks, eventually saw the light of day in 1997 as a CD entitled Diamonds & Emeralds. The band were referred to as Care featuring Ian Brodie.

The cash-in was of course completely cynical as it came hot on the heels of The Lightning Seeds biggest success with the football anthem Three Lions that was adopted by the supporters of England during their hosting of Euro 96. But if even a small handful of those who were new to Broudie’s talents were drawn to the CD by association, they would hopefully have found much to enjoy.

I’ve long had copies of the first two singles on 12″ vinyl – I was sure I bought the third at the time of its release but its long been missing from the shelves. Ever since starting this blog way back in the midst of time, Whatever Possessed You has been one of those pieces of vinyl that I’ve long coveted. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t ever track down a good copy on sale for a reasonable price, and I’ve watched in horror over the years as the price of any newly offered items have been increasingly beyond what I thought it was worth.

The final straw came at the end of 2020 when I lost out at the last minute on eBay to someone who came in with about 10 seconds to spare. I was determined not to miss out again….so when I saw one on Discogs in January 2021, I decided the price was irrelevant. It’s the most I’ve ever paid for any second-hand item in the collection(overtaking something on Postcard Records from about ten years ago), and given that prices are just getting really silly for anything that’s remotely rare, I don’t think I’ll ever go that high again.

But…..and this is the main thing…..it has made me very very happy.

And to celebrate, here’s the tracks from all three 12″ singles, freshly ripped as I’m typing these words, and made available at the 320 kpbs for the best possible listen after you download.

mp3: Care – My Boyish Days
mp3: Care – An Evening In The Ray
mp3: Care – Sad Day For England

mp3: Care – Flaming Sword
mp3: Care – Misericorde
mp3: Care – On The White Cloud

mp3: Care – Whatever Possessed You?
mp3: Care – Besides (One)
mp3: Care – Besides (Two)
mp3: Care – Besides (Three)
mp3: Care – Besides (Four)

Three of my favourite singles of all time, backed with eight fabulous pieces of music, most of them instrumentals, on the b-sides.

Enjoy.

PS – Ian Broudie, in the guise of The Lightning Seeds, would later release his own version of Flaming Sword, as a b-side to the Sense single, in 1992

JC

Creeping Bent Records

IF YOU’RE SEEKING OUT VALUE FOR MONEY….

Creeping Bent is an independent label, established in Glasgow back in 1994, and regarded by many as a worthy, if longer-tenured, successor to the likes of Postcard.

It is run by Douglas Macintyre, who has long been at the heart of much that is good about the music and creative industries in Scotland.

Douglas, like many of his contemporaries in these challenging times, has been seeking out fresh ways to keep the revenues flowing. He recently turned to the increasingly popular Patreon model, which, for those of you who aren’t familiar, allows anyone on the creative side of things to enable fans to become active participants in the work they love by offering them a monthly membership, providing, among other things, access to exclusive content.

I’ve a handful of Patreon subscriptions, but there is no question that Creeping Bent is ahead of almost everyone when it come to offering value for money. It’s just £5 per month (plus VAT) and here, lifted from the relevant Patreon page, is what’s on offer:-

THE CREEPING BENT ORGANISATION is based in Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, and has been operational in Scotland since 1994 releasing independent avant-pop products. Every month we will be sharing 4 previously unreleased tracks (sometimes more) from the future and the past, exclusively to Patreon. New albums by Port Sulphur, The Secret Goldfish, Monica Queen, Article 58 (and others) will only be released through Patreon.

Creeping Bent groups recorded several BBC session for John Peel, groups like Adventures in Stereo, The Nectarine No9, The Secret Goldfish, The Leopards. Recording BBC sessions on 6Music has continued on Marc Riley’s show, with live sets by The Secret Goldfish, Port Sulphur, Vic Godard, Sexual Objects being broadcast.

We’ll be posting monthly mini-concerts, as well as publishing unseen extracts from lyric books, the Bent notebook, photography, art, and memorabilia from the Creeping Bent archive.

We’ll be sharing short stories and written work from our FRETS WORDS publishing outlet, and exclusive posters from our FRETS CONCERTS acoustic concert series, which has thus far featured concerts by Lloyd Cole, James Grant, Teenage Fanclub’s Norman and Euros. Future concerts at FRETS (in the Strathaven Hotel) will feature The Bluebells, The Skinner Songbook, J.J.Gilmour, Roddy Woomble, King Creosote, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Forster, Tim Burgess, Norman Blake, David Scott, Duglas T.Stewart, and Grant-Lee Phillips (among others). Exclusive edition posters for download from these concerts will be made available on Patreon.

Discussion will be random and inhabit that intersection where The Velvet Underground meets ornithology meets Truman Capote meets Georgia O’Keeffe, in other words anything goes!

I really do recommend this is a great way of supporting a fabulous label and for landing yourselves some amazing pieces of music. I can’t guarantee you’ll love everything that lands in your inbox (and there is usually something on a daily basis), but there’s plenty of gems to be found, such as this cover version of an early Josef K single:-

mp3: Douglas MacIntyre – It’s Kinda Funny

There’s also a fascinating short film been made to accompany the music, again available via the subscription.

So, what are you waiting for??  Click here for all the details.

JC

Automatic

LANDFILL INDIE? – A FRESH SERIES FOR MONDAYS (Issue 3)

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment/respond/react to the first two issues in this latest series.  As I anticipated, while some of the TVV community have been happy to see a particular track sent to landfill, others have offered a fairly stout defence.  I hope that this proves to be the case as it goes on….or will we ever see a week when the song gets a unanimous thumbs-down.

Issue 3 sees us heading back to June 2006

mp3: The Automatic – Monster

As with so many acts of the era, I didn’t really pay too much attention to things… I was in my early 40s for goodness’ sake and felt it was a tad undignified to tray and keep up religiously with all the bands who were keeping the teens and students happy.  As such, what follows is from t’internet.

“Electro-punk quartet The Automatic formed in Cardiff, Wales, in the fall of 2003. The founding line-up comprised singer/bassist Robin Hawkins, guitarist James Frost, keyboardist Alex Pennie, and drummer Iwan Griffiths. and they band cut a demo that earned the attention of Probation Management, a subsidiary of Cardiff label FF Vinyl.

Probation in turn mailed the demo to the London-based B-Unique label, which immediately signed the band to a reputed £500,000 publishing deal. By year’s end the Automatic was a major favourite of the famously excitable British press, with the single Raoul penetrating the U.K. Top 40 in the spring of 2006.

The follow-up, Monster, not only cracked the Top Five weeks later, but entered the chart solely on the strength of pre-retail downloads. The debut LP, Not Accepted Anywhere, reached number three following its June 2006 release. The album was re-released the following year in the U.S., under the name The Automatic Automatic.

The band released their second album This Is A Fix accompanied by only one single, Steve McQueen in 2008, which due to a dispute between the band’s labels – B-Unique and Polydor – was plagued with distributional and promotional problems. The dispute led to the band withdrawing from their 5-album deal with the labels and instead formed their own label, Armoured Records, distributed through EMI.

After independently releasing their third album Tear the Signs Down in 2010 and three singles – Interstate, Run & Hide and Cannot Be Saved, the band took what was described as a temporary break, but it seems to have become permanent.

The band were quick to point out that many of the lyrics used in Monster are metaphors for drug and drink intoxication; “brain fried tonight through misuse” and “without these pills you’re let loose”, with the chorus ‘monster’ lyric being a metaphor for the ogre that comes out when people are intoxicated.

The single received fairly mixed reviews:-

“daft, irresponsible and unforgettably irritating”
“Monster is an electrifying 3 minutes and 44 seconds of pop music at its finest”
“it’s the catchiest indie hit of the summer, boasting a hook that could disembowel a whale”
“The Automatic’s releases are getting progressively worse each time. Are they running out of good songs?

I genuinely don’t know where I stand with this one. I’ve an admiration for the fact that The Automatic produced something as catchy as this while still maintaining, initially at least, a degree of credibility with the critical cognoscenti. And then, after I’ve heard it a couple of times in quick succession, I find it annoying to the point that I would gladly throw it into an impregnable cell and toss away the key….

I would imagine that nowadays, those who were aged under 10 at the time of its release will still recall it with much fondness as part of their growing up. Those who jumped around to it at gigs or at indie discos are probably a bit more sheepish about it. Love it or loath it, there’s no denying its catchiness.

But, bringing in additional evidence of the another single, which was released on two separate occasions (March 2006 and January 2007), I’m coming off the fence to say that The Automatic are another whose efforts should be part of the landfill indie mass.  Especially when you take into account the cover version they put on the flip side of the January 2007 release:-

mp3: The Automatic – Raoul
mp3: The Automatic – Gold Digger

No wonder Kanye West got angry with the world in recent years…..

And I better say a huge ‘SORRY’ to Mini SWC, who is, as I’m sure you’ll recall, a huge fan of Monster…..

JC

R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Part 35)

With Up yielding not just one, but TWO top 10 hits, and a sold-out World tour in full swing, Warners decided to capitalise with the release of a fourth single from Up. They really shouldn’t have bothered – to say it backfired is an understatement.

While Up may not be described as the most ‘user-friendly’ record in R.E.M.’s discography, it nonetheless had some wonderful songs on it. For a fourth single, how about the uplifting Walk Unafraid, without a doubt one of the Up Tour’s live highlights? (here, here!!! – JC)

Or The Apologist with its “I’m sorry” refrain referencing the early classic So. Central Rain? Or even, as a real curveball, Up’s best moment in my opinion, the Krautrock-inspired Leonard Cohen pastiche Hope? (agreed….the best song on the album, but so unlike R.E.M. -JC)

But Warners thought “No, what we need is an utterly forgettable 5½-minute dirge that no one will play on radio and no fans will feel the need to buy again.”

And that’s exactly what transpired. Released on 28th June 1999, Suspicion became the first R.E.M. single in more than a decade not to chart in the UK. That is perhaps the only significant thing I can say about it. Both formats (for there were only two) contained the full-length album version of Suspicion

mp3: R.E.M. – Suspicion

Not even the b-sides can save this one. More live tracks I’m afraid. In this case, more from that Jools Holland special from the previous Autumn. The main CD release included these:

mp3: R.E.M. – Electrolite [live on Later… With Jools Holland]
mp3: R.E.M. – Man On The Moon [live on Later… With Jools Holland]

The collectible 3” CD contained a live in the studio take of Suspicion (though not the same one that appeared on the Lotus single), plus an early fave taken from that Jools show.

mp3: R.E.M. – Suspicion [live at Ealing Studios]
mp3: R.E.M. – Perfect Circle [live on Later… With Jools Holland]

Not the most inspiring way to sign off the Up era, but perhaps in some way fitting considering what was to come over the next few years…

The Robster

Pop Wallpaper

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #249: POP WALLPAPER

From lastfm…

Pop Wallpaper were formed in around 1981 in Stirling, Scotland, with the original line-up of Evan Henderson (guitar/vocals), David Evans (guitar), Stephen Hunter (bass) and Les Cook (drums). The band gigged locally to much critical acclaim and moved their base to Edinburgh in 1982 with a final line-up of Audrey Redpath (vocals), Evan Henderson (guitar), David Evans (guitar), Myles Raymond (bass), Les Cook (drums, keyboards) and John McVay (sax, keyboards).

During the course of their life, the band played throughout Scotland, supporting the likes of Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and, bizarrely, Afrikka Bambaatta & The Soulsonic Force, building up a solid fan-base.

The first EP was released in 1984 and was a 3-track single headed up by “Over Your Shoulder”. This single had extensive radio play on BBC Radio 1 on the John Peel and Janice Long shows, leading to a Janice Long session recorded at the BBC in London.

This was followed by a second single in 1986, a double-A side featuring a cover of the Shuggie Otis song “Strawberry Letter 23” and “Nothing Can Call Me Back”. Again these received a fair amount of airplay, but unfortunately little commercial success outwith their core base in Edinburgh.

JC adds……

I’ve had a copy of the 12″ of the second single for a while now, holding it back until such a time as their turn came up in this long-running series.  It’s not one I picked up back in 1984, although I had heard it played a couple of times at the alternative nights held each Thursday in the Students Union at Strathclyde Uni, but I did see a second-hand copy in a shop around three years ago.

mp3: Pop Wallpaper – Strawberry Letter 23
mp3: Pop Wallpaper – Nothing Can Call Me Back

I wasn’t aware until more recently that the band only ever released the two singles, and, as it turns out, the previous effort was included in the Big Gold Dreams boxset compilation from a couple of years back:-

mp3: Pop Wallpaper – Over Your Shoulder

The booklet which comes with BGD provides the information that Evan Henderson would later become the manager of Paul Haig – and indeed is someone who, a few years ago, became a huge friend of the blog.

Returning to Pop Wallpaper, I think its fair to say they are very much of their time, but there’s something that little bit different about the noise they make to make them a tad more interesting than most. Audrey’s vocals are quite unique, and there’s a sense of Associates/Haig/Win about the music in many places.

JC

 

Girls At Our Best

HERE’S THE SOPHOMORE SINGLE

It was back in June 2017 when I previously gave a mention to Girls At Our Best!, recalling that I learned of them thanks to Getting Nowhere Fast, being covered by The Wedding Present.

As I mentioned in passing, Getting Nowhere Fast was a self-financed single, released in April 1980 on the band’s own Record Records following which Rough Trade put out a second single entitled Politics in November 1980.

I’ve now tracked down a copy of the sophomore effort:-

mp3 : Girls At Our Best! – Politics

My info, supplied by my big reference book of indie music, was that this came out solely on Rough Trade but it turns out with was a joint release with the band’s own label.

At first listen, I didn’t think it came close to matching the majesty of the debut 45, but it’s proven to be one of those songs that manages to grow with successive listens.  I thought it was a song that could firmly be put in the big bundle of twee songs, but in fact there’s a fair bit of an anti-establishment punch being thrown at the antics of those who are out on the stump canvassing votes, with the sinister line of ‘Love to see you smiling when you’re kissing little girls’ delivered with seeming innocence.  And if you’re wondering what is being chanted in the background while the chorus rings out, I’m happy to clarify that name checks are given to the USA, CIA, KGB, EEC, FBI, and ICI.

JC

Arab Strap

SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 44)

This came up via the i-player while I was away in world of my own last Sunday, out stretching my legs in an effort to avoid boredom.  I made a mental note to check on my return and, true enough, I hadn’t previously included it in this series, albeit a couple of other Arab Strap songs have been earlier chapters

So that was the first big weekend of the summer… Starts Thursday as usual with a canteen quiz and again no-one wins the big cash prize. Later I do my sound bloke routine by approaching Gina’s new boyfriend to say that he shouldn’t feel that there’s any animosity between us and then I even go and make peace with her. I shouldn’t have bothered. Then on Friday night we went through to the Arches…

There was only one car going, so some of us had to get the train. We got through quite late. Then we went to a pub to take the gear. There was no problems getting in – we saw some others waiting down the front of the queue so we skipped in. It was a good night, everyone was nutted and I ended up dancing with some blonde girl. I thought she had been quite pretty until last night when Matthew informed me that she had, in fact, been a pig. When the club finished we wandered the streets for a while until we got to this 24-hour cafe but I didn’t like the look of it so we left and got a taxi back to Morag’s flat. I couldn’t sleep, so I sat about drinking someone else’s strawberry tonic wine and tried to keep everyone else up.

Then at ten o’clock in the morning we went downstairs to buy some drink. We had intended to watch the football in the afternoon but we’d passed out by then and slept right through it, awaking to find that England had won two-nil. Then we went to get the train home and had a few in the Station Bar. We had some stuff left from the previous night’s supplies so when we got home we decided to go down to John’s indie disco. Same story as Friday – lots of hugging, lots of dancing etc. etc. I couldn’t sleep again so went up the park to look at the tomb, taking a detour through the playpark. To get in we had to climb over a ten foot steel fence, which resulted in severe bruising of our hands, legs and groins, but we had a good laugh on the stuff, especially the tube-slide, which probably doubles up as a urinal for drunk teens. Then we walked through the woods to have a look at the tomb. It was a big disappointment, but the mist on the lake was cool.

Sunday afternoon we go up to John’s with a lot of beer in time to watch the Simpsons. It was a really good episode about love always ending in tragedy except, of course, for Marge and Homer. It was quite moving at the end and to tell you the truth my eyes were a bit damp. Then we watched these young girls in swimsuits have a water fight in the street.

(“Taping this, aye?”)

We went up to the pub about ten. It was busy for a Sunday night, lots of people we know, including my first ever girlfriend who I still find very attractive, quite frankly, but I didn’t really speak to her. She’s probably still a bitch, anyway. Her friend Gillian was there, I had a chat with her, she was still quite pleasant. At the same time I watched Malcolm make some terrible attempt to try and chat up a girl we know called Jo. He made some remark about her skirt that was barely there the previous night or something. I couldn’t sleep again that night, thanks to some seriously disturbing nightmares…Matthew says I should cut down on the cheese.

“Went out for the weekend, it lasted for ever, high with our friends it’s officially summer.”

I got some sleep eventually on Monday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, and later that evening Malcolm introduced me to the power of Merrydown – £1.79 a litre, 8.2% – mmmm….. Judith and Laura came round later and we sat in my back garden and drank. Then Matthew came round and we went up the town. It’s officially summer.

mp3: Arab Strap – The First Big Weekend

The First Big Weekend took place on Friday 14 – Sunday 16 June 1996.  Aidan Moffat would have been 23 years old at the time, while Malcolm Middleton would have been 22.  I’m guessing the crowd of friends who travelled the 23.5 miles from their home town of Falkirk to Glasgow, scene of the Friday night/Saturday morning frivolities, would have been around the same age.

Your humble scribe was just a few days short of his 33rd birthday, and my big weekend was spent in St Andrews, with a crowd of 16 mates all staying two nights in a bed and breakfast and playing games of golf on each of the Friday, Saturday and Sunday under blazing hot skies – it was in the mid 80s the entire time.  We did, somehow, manage to stay out till about 1am on the Friday, get up to play golf at 7am on the Saturday, have some food and then watch the important football match in which England beat Scotland 2-0 in the European Championships.  Saturday night was a bit quieter and the golf on the Sunday was survival of the fittest…..

Here’s another couple of versions of the song.

The first is from Arab Strap’s first ever live gig at King Tut’s in Glasgow in October 1996…..you’ll spot that the lyrics are a tad different, but you’ll also perhaps spot that the friends referred to in the song are in the audience……it was the band’s ninth and final song of the set.  I’d love to say I was there, but I’d be lying…

mp3: Arab Strap – The First Big Weekend (live, October 1996)

The second version  was released as a digital single to mark the 20th Anniversary of the song.  It was remixed by Miaoux Miaoux, one of the other wonderful acts who have been part of the Chemikal Underground story.

mp3: Arab Strap – The First Big Weekend of 2016

The remix is, how do you say it, a banging tune………

JC

 

Dr.Dre

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS : 2001

Album: 2001 : Dr.Dre
Review: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 19 September 2019
Author: Sose Fuamoli

Dr. Dre’s 2001 — a hip hop classic that could not be made today

A classic record with some questionable content

When we think of Dr. Dre, we think of an era of hip hop rooted in decadence, delivered by artists who had lived the experiences that formed the basis of their material.

These were the stories of hustlers, young men who had come up from the struggle. Legends in the making who were thriving in a genre that provided an avenue out of the violence and impoverishment of their upbringing. A future that would be paved with money and fame in excess, and egos to match.

The release of Dre’s debut LP The Chronic in 1992 firmly established him as a hip hop game changer.

From the shadows of his group N.W.A’s mammoth success emerged a double threat. Dre’s production technique and ear for g-funk and gangsta rap progressions, coupled with his staunch flow, turned heads and provided a huge breakthrough for the Death Row Records label Dre founded with Suge Knight and The D.O.C..

Seven years later, in anticipation of the new millennium, Dr. Dre delivered his second album, 2001.

A record laden with expectation and anticipation, the album followed 1996’s Dr. Dre Presents The Aftermath – a compilation album that sold well, but failed to capture the same attention and respect as The Chronic.

Where 2001 differs is in its compositional weight, the calibre of guests representing the thriving culture of the time, and the reflection of Dre’s evolution as a rapper and the West Coast sound in general.

“I just basically do hardcore hip hop and try to add a touch of dark comedy here and there,” Dr. Dre told the Irish Times in 2000.

“A lot of the times the media just takes this and tries to make it into something else when it’s all entertainment first.”

It makes sense. 2001 was originally constructed as if it were a film.

Purely cinematic in its presentation, an album like 2001 set a precedent for this type of hip hop record that an artist like Kendrick Lamar would follow in producing seminal works of their own (Good Kid, m.A.A.d City).

The skits linking the 17 album tracks continue the narrative, centred on West Coast hip hop’s thematic triumvirate: weed, sex and violence.

Comedian Eddie Griffin is a noted voice on ‘Ed-Ucation’, possibly the album’s lowest point: a one-and-a-half-minute rant about side-chicks who become pregnant on purpose.

Two tracks later, we hear orgasms and the voice of male porn star Jake Steed on ‘Pause for a Porno’, before the interlude breaks into ‘Housewife’.

The cringe factor brought on Dre’s more graphic lyrics are relegated to the lesser known songs on the album. Intentional or not, the kind of subject matter acclaimed rappers would never be able to get away with today, is ultimately shadowed by the singles: banger after banger that would drop during the album’s cycle of release.

What comes out on top is a strong and confident attitude that permeates through the entire piece.

The record is less concerned with hyping up a lifestyle and serves more as a massive ‘fuck you’ to anyone who questioned how Dr. Dre would stand solo, sans-N.W.A and without Death Row and Suge Knight behind him.

Establishing himself as one of the strongest players in the culture, Dr. Dre demonstrated his reach in employing an all-star list of ghostwriters (The D.O.C., Royce da 5’9”, Jay-Z), musicians (Mike Elizondo, Scott Storch, Jason Hann) and vocalists to pull his vision together.

We’re talking Xzibit, Nate Dogg, Kurupt and Snoop Dogg. Mary J. Blige, MC Ren, Hittman. Eminem, fresh off the back of the Dr. Dre-produced debut, The Slim Shady LP.  The young Marshall Mathers has one of the best verses and highlight moments on the record, spitting psychopathic greatness on ‘Forgot About Dre’.

A cultural moment as well as an album touchstone, ‘Forgot About Dre’ showed Dre at his bitter best, while Eminem’s vibe is a perfect snapshot of America’s Most Disturbed at his most venomous.

The album has spawned some of the most popular tracks of the decade, namely ‘Still D.R.E’ and ‘The Next Episode’, the latter of which has become almost a rite of passage to rap along to for anyone beginning the partying chapter of their young adulthood.

‘Still D.R.E’, the first single from 2001, is assertive and quick to light a fire beneath those who assumed Dre was down and out of the game following the release of …The Aftermath.

‘I stay close to the heat,’ he raps. ‘And even when I was close to defeat, I rose to my feet’.

In the same vein, ‘The Next Episode’ is possibly the pinnacle of West Coast rap, delivered in its most pure form.

The track wouldn’t be what it is without Snoop Dogg’s silky-smooth cadence, Dre’s braggadocious entry and statement of intent as a King of Cali (‘Compton, Long Beach, Inglewoood’) and of course, Nate Dogg’s marijuana-loving outro.

Elsewhere on 2001, a listener can find some underrated cuts that still stand strong on their own now, 20 years later.

‘Bang Bang’ is an example of Dr. Dre’s intelligence and knack for clever lyrics, ‘Let’s Get High’ sees Ms. Roq shine, while ‘The Message’ changes the album’s speed entirely.

Closing the album, the Mary J. Blige and Rell collaboration ‘The Message’ is an ode to Dr. Dre’s late brother Tyree and a song that deserved much more attention than it received.

At 22 tracks total, 2001 was perhaps embraced gluttonously when it was first unleashed. Nobody could have predicted Dr. Dre’s entrepreneurial hustles becoming such a main (and lucrative) focus over the next decade. He released another studio record (Compton) in 2015, yet the fumes of hope surrounding the almost mythical Detox album remain.

As we look to the beginning of another decade, a deep dive on an album like 2001 poses the question:

Could this sort of record be made and revered today?

Ask most hip-hop fans and they’d probably tell you no.

While the culture does still have pockets of music rooted in the same old tropes (read: strippers, liquor, misogyny), hip hop today has never been so multi-faceted. Yet, in a lot of ways, the influence of Dr. Dre has been there throughout.

As the West Coast hip hop sound became more defined – and popular – through the latter half of the 1990s, largely thanks to the emergence of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, the Dr. Dre sound remained present and continued to develop.

An innovator and sonic perfectionist, the Compton original would go on to pave the way for a whole new generation of hip hop artists valuing a fine-tuned ear for production and composition as much as they do their rhymes.

JC adds…….

I stumbled across this piece of writing when I was looking for a bit of background on The Next Episode, as I was intending to do a posting on that 12″ single.  But I changed my mind and decided instead to go with this review of the album as Ms. Fuamoli, who is a very well established music journalist, content producer and publicist from Melbourne, has captured perfectly what I feel about 2001.

It’s something that I can’t listen to all the way through. Indeed, I reckon I’ve only managed to do so on two occasions, the first being the initial playback and the second about 18 months ago when I tried it out with some new headphones (not Beats Headphones I should add!!!) as I really love much of the production, and I used the occasion to check, and be reminded of, the fact that the skits are awful and that a fair number of the lyrics are questionable/objectionable.

It acted as a useful reminder that this is a record which shouldn’t be owned on vinyl.  CD is ideal as the remote control needs to be handily placed ready for the FF button to be utilised.  And yet, despite my unease about a lot of things, there are enough songs, all of which have been highlighted in the above review that were instant classics and still, all these years later, retain the right to be described as such :-

mp3: Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg) – Still D.R.E.
mp3: Dr. Dre (feat. Eminem) – Forgot About Dre
mp3: Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg, Kurupt and Nate Dogg) – The Next Episode
mp3: Dr. Dre (feat. Mary J Bilge and Rell) – The Message

This post might not actually last too long…..I’ve a sneaky feeling I might get a take-down notice.

JC

Spectrum

BURNING BADGERS VINYL (Part 16): SPECTRUM

Burning Badgers Vinyl – The Lost LPs #4

Soul Kiss(Glide Divine) – Spectrum (1992, Silvertone Records)

SWC writes……..

The second time I ever met Badger was outside a farm near the rain drenched Dartmoor market town called Okehampton (or, as the locals call it in honour of its rain drenched status, Soakhampton). It was at the height of the foot and mouth crisis and I can remember for a good three months the air on Dartmoor was thick with the smell of burning cows. It was a horrible time. I’d turned up there in a hire car, a brand new Honda Civic, which had 17 miles on the clock when I got in it and was so clean you could have fried your breakfast on it. By the time I’d got to the farm it was covered in mud. Badger was sitting cross legged on a massive tree stump drinking tea out of a mug that had “Farmers like it dirty” emblazoned on its side. He also, as usual, had a bacon sandwich in his left hand.

(Incidentally the official colour of the Honda Civic was something called ‘Nighthawk’. I also once drove a new Vauxhall Insignia that was apparently coloured ‘Bedouin’, something that inspired Badger and I to once compile a rundown of the best songs ever to contain a colour in the title, ‘Blue Monday’ came out on top unsurprisingly narrowly beating ‘Ruby Tuesday’ to the crown).

The previous time I’d met him had been about six weeks earlier at a Christmas Party where a very drunk Badger had explained to a semi interested crowd the mechanics of the bands The Libertines and Babyshambles with the aid of condiments such as brown sauce, small sachets of vinegar and a salt mill. He sort of pulled it off. I got the bus back to the wilds of South Devon with Badger that night and we spent the entire hour journey talking about our favourite bands. Although I almost moved seats when he said that one of the best records he owned was ‘Appetite For Destruction’.

Anyway, back to the farm, I can’t go into to why Badger was there, but I had to deliver something to him and it had to be hand delivered. The hand delivered thing was very sensitive and I was supposed to be a little bit careful with it. I don’t think I was supposed to advertise my arrival to the middle of nowhere by destroying the peace and quiet of the countryside by taking full advantage of the brand new and previously unused car stereo in the Honda Civic. But that’s’ what I did. I literally rocked up at this farm with ‘Loveless’ by My Bloody Valentine roaring away.

mp3: My Bloody Valentine – Sometimes

Badger told me he heard me coming through the village a full five minutes before I arrived. The word ‘full’ emphasised with a grin. He said it was the first time he had ever seen cows willingly engaging in shoegazing. On the other hand he said pointing to the field of crops to his left,

“My Bloody Valentine appear to be a very effective form of scaring off crows from fields. You should market that to the National Farmers Union, you want a cuppa?

Stupid question. Of course, I want a cuppa. Badger looks at me and asks “You ever seen MBV live?”. Nope I say…

In late 1991, a much younger and less grizzled Tim Badger caught a train from Leeds with his mates Aaron and Max and travelled down to London to see My Bloody Valentine. He wasn’t really a fan of the band, he thought that they were too bloody loud but they were also going to a football match so he tagged along. The gig was at the Town and Country Club (now the Forum), a legendary venue in Kentish Town. He told me all about that gig.

Christ, it was loud” he said, “from the first second they came on there was just smoke everywhere, and then constant feedback, and this wall of sound that made you teeth rattle and it was impossible to drink anything because of the throbbing noise your jaw was making, you couldn’t see anything, everyone was coughing and everyones ears hurt. I mean it was amazing but at least twenty people lost their hearing that night before the support had even finished”

Who was the support act I asked him. He looked at me and grinned, “It was Sonic Boom’s Spectrum and…” he said his voice dropping to a whisper…”they were way better than MBV, MBV were out of tune, half asleep and spoke in whispers to a crowd who had had their ear drums blasted by two hours of feedback. They could have been calling our mothers whores and we wouldn’t have had a clue” (the gig was 14th December 1991).

All of which gently rocking cows staring at their hooves (why has no one invented hoofgaze yet?), brings us to the fourth LP casually lifted from Badger’s Big Box of Records. It is, for those of you who haven’t read the top of the page, the debut album ‘Soul Kiss (Glide Divine)’, by the slightly less genius side of Spacemen 3, – Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom and his band Spectrum.

As you will all know, I’m a sucker for anything Spacemen 3 related – I mean I even bought the album by The Darkside and I went to Lupine Howl’s first ever gig, but for some reason apart from the first track below I never explored Spectrum’s oeuvre, largely I think because the word ‘Spectrum’ always reminds me of a rubbish leisure centre in Guildford, where a 50 year old woman made a pass at a 20 year old me at a bus stop (it’s a story for another time).
Anyway, let’s start here, with the one track we should know about already.

mp3: Spectrum – How You Satisfy Me

Because that folks, is stone cold indie rock excellence from the opening swirls of that organ at the start, through the way it just kind of nicks a large part of a Troggs song (I forget which one) and tries to pretend it hasn’t. After that Kember just kinds of floats his lyrics about over and over again majestically. Essentially ‘How You Satisfy Me’ is one long chorus and one long riff but somehow, somehow, its garage rock perfection and if Kember stuck to that instead of making music that you sounded as you were sitting on a cloud, things might have been very different.

The rest of the album is a lot calmer and much more aligned with Sonic Boom’s later E.A.R. (Experimental Audio Research) work, more experimental and firmly embedded in the drone rock genre.

I’ll give you ‘Neon Sigh’ as an example of this. It kind of slowly uses drone effect and has this cool swirly sounds drifting in and out that kind of suggest something might happen, albeit it will be minimalistic when it does eventually happen.

Musically it would appear at least, that Sonic Boom’s Spectrum could argue that they were floating in space long before Jason Pierce stumbled upon the idea.

mp3: Spectrum – Neon Sigh

It’s not all experimental space drifting though, there are a bunch of actual songs, which are very pleasant. ‘Waves Wash Over Me’ stands out, if only for the vocals, which are ‘breezy’ shall we say.

mp3: Spectrum – Waves Wash Over Me

My favourite part of the album, apart from ‘How You Satisfy Me’ that is, is a track called “Sweet Running Water”. Which is in keeping with the watery theme running through the album, a slow and gentle waterfall of feedback and even softer rhythms. Outstanding.

mp3: Spectrum – Sweet Running Water

SWC

JC adds

All new to me…..and while it’s not something I would have tracked down at the time the fact that 1992 was a year in which very few copies of album were pressed onto vinyl means SWC is now the proud owner of a record which fetches the best part of £200 on the second-hand market.  As such, I type this PS with a tinge of jealousy…..

Maccabees

LANDFILL INDIE? – A FRESH SERIES FOR MONDAYS (Issue 2)

I’m typing this up before seeing any reaction to Issue 1, so I’m not sure if this will be the second and final part of the series or if in fact there is a wish from readers to see it continue, hopefully with a few guest contributions.

I own a vinyl copy of this week’s song:-

mp3: The Maccabees – About Your Dress

I’m not actually sure as to why I bought it back in 2007 other than the fact that I had maybe six months or so previously acquired my first USB turntable with the intention of converting loads of old vinyl into mp3s, and in the process, started up The Vinyl Villain in September 2006.  Thinking back, and looking at the overall vinyl collection, it was a period when I would pick up 7″ singles on spec when browsing in any of the independent shops, partly as I was wondering if I happened to pick something up by a then unknown or minor band who went on to be massive, then I might have something that would later become ‘valuable’ in my hands – as an aside, this has actually happened with the likes of the early Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad singles, (not that these were bought on spec!!).

About Your Dress is, sadly, indie-pop by numbers. It was a relatively minor hit, reaching #33, but this would actually prove to be The Maccabees biggest selling 45 in a career which spanned 2005-2015, during which all four of their albums went at least silver, (with a gold disc for 2012’s Given To The Wind).

I should mention that the single is on yellow vinyl – it was also available on blue vinyl with a slightly different sleeve and a different b-side recorded in the studio   Mine’s has this live version of their previous single

mp3: The Maccabees – First Love (live at University of London Union, 5 December 2006)

Oh, and by the way, I knew nothing of this lot before putting this piece together.  Turns out, they have the poshest collection of names I have ever seen in one group:-

Orlando Weeks – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Hugo White – guitars, backing vocals
Felix White – guitars, piano, backing vocals
Rupert Shepherd – bass
Robert Dylan Thomas – drums

Finally, I paid £3 for the single. A mint copy of it goes for £6 these days on Discogs.  Not bad for something that I’d say is very much landfill indie……..

JC

R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Part 34)

R.E.M.’s songs have provoked a lot of discussions over the years as to their meaning and inspirations. At My Most Beautiful has been interpreted in various ways, but for perhaps the only time in the band’s entire catalogue, there is nothing at all to interpret here – it’s just so blindingly obvious.

mp3: R.E.M. – At My Most Beautiful [radio remix]

At My Most Beautiful is a love song, pure and simple. Lyrically, for the first time, Stipe wrote from the point of view of being head over heels in love with someone who is also in love with him. It all started when the line “I’ve found a way to make you smile” popped into his head. “I just thought that’s the most beautiful thing in the world”. It took him a year to finish the lyrics while he tried to figure out what those ways to “make you smile” were. After a conversation with Patti Smith one morning, he eventually completed the lyrics in 45 minutes. He had grown tired of writing what he termed “ironic love songs” and set out to pen “the most romantic song I’d ever written”. And he did, the resulting lyric being playful and – dare I say it – “cute” (ugh! Pass the sick bucket), but devoid of the usual horrid clichés such songs usually resort to.

The word ‘smile’ wasn’t lost on Stipe either. “All I knew was The Beach Boys had a record called Smile so I was like, ‘Well, this will be my gift to Peter, Mike and Bill’ [who were all Beach Boys fans].” Mike Mills wrote the basic piano track and immediately thought it sounded like something Brian Wilson might have written. When Peter Buck heard it, he thought the same. So they deliberately set about creating a Beach Boys homage. And that’s a point worth making: there are no pretensions here; if you think it sounds derivative, it’s really meant to be. And it’s not just the piano and vocals that are referenced. Buck plays drums on At My Most Beautiful, using legendary session drummer (and BB collaborator) Hal Blaine as direct inspiration.

For me, despite all those Beach Boys allusions (and maybe, in some ways, because of them), this is one of R.E.M.’s very best songs. It’s so straight-forward and honest, and beautifully arranged, it’s almost impossible to find fault with. Those vocal harmonies are absolutely divine. It would always make an R.E.M. mixtape/playlist where many other singles would not. I knew this from the first time I heard it and that’s not changed in 25 years.

For the single a remix of sorts was devised. However, you’d be hard-pressed to spot the differences. I think (to my ears, anyway) that as the intention was for the song to gain radio play, it was mixed so all the sounds were consolidated to be heard across both channels simultaneously. For instance, if you listen on a good pair of headphones, you may be able to notice that on the album version, the bass guitar is mainly on the left, while in the right ear you can hear bells. That distinction isn’t quite so clear on the so-called ‘radio remix’. But now I’m beginning to sound rather nerdy…

Released on 8th March 1999, At My Most Beautiful became the second top 10 hit off Up (the band’s 7th overall in the UK) when it landed squarely at #10 the following week. The usual three formats were on offer but the well was dry in terms of unreleased songs, so the live archives were plundered. Around the time of Up’s release, R.E.M. were the subject of a special episode of Later… With Jools Holland on the BBC in which they were the only band appearing. They played a set of 13 songs featuring 6 from Up, another half dozen from their back catalogue plus a cover version. For the b-sides of the final singles from Up, this show was sourced. So the cassette and standard CD included that cover, the second Iggy Pop song the band had issued in recent years:

mp3: R.E.M. – The Passenger [live on Later… With Jools Holland]

The CD also included a version of my all-time favourite R.E.M. song. I don’t actually care how often Country Feedback has been put out, you can never have too many versions of it!

mp3: R.E.M. – Country Feedback [live on Later… With Jools Holland]

The collector’s 3” CD eschewed the single version of the title track in favour of a version recorded just two days prior to the Jools show as part of a BBC radio session for none other than John Peel. It also included a classic oldie from the Jools Holland performance.

mp3: R.E.M. – At My Most Beautiful [live Peel Session, BBC Radio One]
mp3: R.E.M. – So. Central Rain [live on Later… With Jools Holland]

In spite of the commercial success of At My Most Beautiful, and the fact it was such a good song, sales of Up continued to falter, becoming the band’s least successful record since Document. The signs were that R.E.M. had not just reached their peak, but that they had begun their descent…

The Robster

Poems

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #248: THE POEMS

So…..I knew that The Poems were a Scottish act, as they were one of those included on 3 x home-made CDs posted to me a few years back by long-time reader, Phil Hogarth.

It was a cover version and I quite liked it.  But I never seemed to come across any of their material in any shops and The Poems went out of my mind, until the other day when I realised it was about to be their turn in this long-running series, albeit I could only offer up the one song of theirs on the hard drive.

Here’s the very brief bio from all music:-

Influenced by literature as much as the best in Scottish pop, Glasgow’s the Poems feature former members of classic Scottish bands. Robert Hodgens (the Bluebells), Adrian Barry (the High Fidelity), and Bobby Paterson (Love and Money) were joined by vocalists Kerry Polwart and Amy Ogletree. The quintet signed on with Minty Fresh in the U.S. and released Young America in September 2006. The record includes contributions from members of Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, Del Amitri, and the Proclaimers.

WTF????!!!!!!!!!

How did I miss that?????

Turns out that the album, while released in the US in September 2006, didn’t get a release in the UK until the summer of 2008, and yet I can’t recall ever reading anything about it at the time.  Nor is there much available on-line, which makes me think it was all a bit low-key….but then again, it might just be one of those times when I’ve missed out through ignorance.

And here’s the other thing, the track Phil included on the CDs isn’t to be found on the album, which I think might be all that The Poems ever officially released.

mp3: The Poems – 10.15 Saturday Night

Oh, and as I couldn’t find any promotional images of the band anywhere on t’internet, I’ve illustrated the post with the logo of the Chicago-based label.

There’s no sign of the UK release of Young America on Discogs, and there are no copies up for sale from any UK dealers, which means it would have to be an expensive purchase of a CD in the post-Brexit era…..anyone out there able to offer any assistance?

JC